The present invention relates generally to the field of computer user interface technology. More specifically, the present invention is related to a system and method for the recognition of reading, skimming, and scanning from eye-gaze patterns.
The following definitions may assist in the understanding of the terminology used through the specification:                heterogeneous content—objects (like icons, windows, menus, etc.) encountered in electronic displays (e.g., monitors).        reading—a method of systematically and methodically examining and grasping the meaning of textual content.        skimming—a method of rapidly moving the eyes over textual content with the purpose of getting only the main ideas and a general overview of the content.        scanning—a method of rapidly covering a great breadth of the display in order to locate specific heterogeneous content.        tokenization—the process of classifying a range of phenomena (i.e. eye movements) into discrete categories.        quantization—integration (usually averaging) of a sequential group of measurements where the measurements in each group do not overlap. The measurements may be over time or space.        database—any stored collection of information located on the local computer, a local area network (LAN) or and wide area network (WAN) including the world wide web (WWW). (note: any use of this term refers to the use of the term as defined in this way.)        